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Ah, September. Vacations are over, summer homes are locked up, children are back in school. For me, September means the end of wild summer travels, a new home in New York City, and a return to a semblance of normalcy.
No more scouring the shelves of a sparsely stocked African grocery store for vegetables, now I will have bags full of produce to lug home from the farmer’s market once a week. No more eating in for necessity to save money as we did in Switzerland, now we will cook at home because we want to. And though I can never see getting bored of Asian curries or African wild game, staple eating during our summer travels, there are certain foods that I simply could not wait to work back into my regular cooking routine upon our return to America.
After two months of eating around the world, guess what I ate in the first 24 hours back? Pizza. Bagels. Sushi. But when it came to cooking, it was probably the sight of not one type of salsa, but over a dozen lining the California super market shelves that had me most excited for a return to my own kitchen. Salsa, as it turns out, is hard to come by in Sri Lanka, even harder in Namibia.
I can surely make my own salsa, and I do particularly this time of year when tomatoes are abundant, but there is something about a good Mexican style store-bought spicy fresh salsa that gets me hungry for the many things I will use it with.
A green salsa of tomatillos topped a breakfast of fried eggs, black beans, and tortillas. Spicy tomato salsa perked up a chicken and rice burrito. Even a teriyaki-ish marinade for skirt steak made with soy and brown sugar was a sweet and savory contrast to a store bought salsa when the meat was grilled up and sliced for tacos.
Which leads me to the tortilla. In Africa we had many meals with the ubiquitous cornmeal porridge that many Zambians and Namibians eat in Southern Africa. Tortillas, though made with virtually the same cornmeal as African porridge, were nowhere to be found. Like corn porridge, tortillas are a starchy base for the meat of the meal. No one makes tortillas, and their delicious salsa scooping offspring tortilla chips, like Mexicans. I greedily snapped up some of both on my first shopping trip after coming home.
Some foods, like tropical fruit, were literally hanging from the roadside trees in Sri Lanka but then disappeared in Africa just to reemerge, albeit for a price, on entering Europe. Good cheese was hard to come by in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, but fairly readily available from local farms in Namibia and overly abundant in the dairy rich environment of Switzerland.
Now that I’m home I will surely miss the curries of Sri Lanka, the searing spice of the lamb sate in Indonesia, the incomparable freshness of the game meat in Namibia, and the cheese, oh the cheese, of Switzerland. But God bless the land of plenty because should I get a craving for wild game, Swiss cheese, or even Sri Lankan curry, I know that somewhere in my new home of New York I can find these things. But only in America can I have a bagel for breakfast, sushi for lunch, and go home with fresh salsa and handmade tortillas to whip up a Mexican inspired feast for dinner. In much of America, lucky as we are, being home means eating whatever foods we want to it eat. Now that is something worth coming home to.
©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/amy-powell/1185-foods-of-home/
A Meal Worth Coming Home To
Ah, September. Vacations are over, summer homes are locked up, children are back in school. For me, September means the end of wild summer travels, a new home in New York City, and a return to a semblance of normalcy.
No more scouring the shelves of a sparsely stocked African grocery store for vegetables, now I will have bags full of produce to lug home from the farmer’s market once a week. No more eating in for necessity to save money as we did in Switzerland, now we will cook at home because we want to. And though I can never see getting bored of Asian curries or African wild game, staple eating during our summer travels, there are certain foods that I simply could not wait to work back into my regular cooking routine upon our return to America.
After two months of eating around the world, guess what I ate in the first 24 hours back? Pizza. Bagels. Sushi. But when it came to cooking, it was probably the sight of not one type of salsa, but over a dozen lining the California super market shelves that had me most excited for a return to my own kitchen. Salsa, as it turns out, is hard to come by in Sri Lanka, even harder in Namibia.
I can surely make my own salsa, and I do particularly this time of year when tomatoes are abundant, but there is something about a good Mexican style store-bought spicy fresh salsa that gets me hungry for the many things I will use it with.
A green salsa of tomatillos topped a breakfast of fried eggs, black beans, and tortillas. Spicy tomato salsa perked up a chicken and rice burrito. Even a teriyaki-ish marinade for skirt steak made with soy and brown sugar was a sweet and savory contrast to a store bought salsa when the meat was grilled up and sliced for tacos.
Which leads me to the tortilla. In Africa we had many meals with the ubiquitous cornmeal porridge that many Zambians and Namibians eat in Southern Africa. Tortillas, though made with virtually the same cornmeal as African porridge, were nowhere to be found. Like corn porridge, tortillas are a starchy base for the meat of the meal. No one makes tortillas, and their delicious salsa scooping offspring tortilla chips, like Mexicans. I greedily snapped up some of both on my first shopping trip after coming home.
Some foods, like tropical fruit, were literally hanging from the roadside trees in Sri Lanka but then disappeared in Africa just to reemerge, albeit for a price, on entering Europe. Good cheese was hard to come by in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, but fairly readily available from local farms in Namibia and overly abundant in the dairy rich environment of Switzerland.
Now that I’m home I will surely miss the curries of Sri Lanka, the searing spice of the lamb sate in Indonesia, the incomparable freshness of the game meat in Namibia, and the cheese, oh the cheese, of Switzerland. But God bless the land of plenty because should I get a craving for wild game, Swiss cheese, or even Sri Lankan curry, I know that somewhere in my new home of New York I can find these things. But only in America can I have a bagel for breakfast, sushi for lunch, and go home with fresh salsa and handmade tortillas to whip up a Mexican inspired feast for dinner. In much of America, lucky as we are, being home means eating whatever foods we want to it eat. Now that is something worth coming home to.
Teriyaki Flank Steak Tacos
Made with salsa, corn tortillas, black pepper, flank steak, garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, vegetable oil, salt
Made with salsa, corn tortillas, black pepper, flank steak, garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, vegetable oil, salt
Serves/Makes: 6
- 2 pounds flank steak
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 12 corn tortillas
- 3/4 cup salsa
Trim flank steak of excess fat and set aside in a shallow baking dish. Crush garlic.
In a small bowl, mix garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, oil, salt and pepper. Pour marinade over the steak and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.
Preheat a large saute pan or grill pan over medium high heat. Remove steak from the marinade and place in the hot pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes per side depending on the thickness of the meat for medium rare. Let the meat rest for 5 minutes.
While meat is resting, heat tortillas in a microwave or in a dry pan to warm up. Thinly slice steak. Pile meat into tortillas and top with fresh salsa.
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©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/amy-powell/1185-foods-of-home/